AC Transit Electric Bus Program

CTE, in partnership with Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District (AC Transit), has partnered over the years to deploy a number of electric buses. The project descriptions are as follows:

CTE is managing a battery electric project for AC Transit to deploy five New Flyer battery electric buses on routes that are also serviced by AC Transit’s fuel cell bus fleet. The battery electric buses will be charged overnight at AC Transit’s Oakland operating division and enable an excellent comparison between two different electric drive technologies.

CTE is managing an award supporting the continued operation of AC Transit’s 12 fuel cell bus fleet through 2016. The grant provides extended support for warranties that began expiring in August of 2013. The AC Transit fuel cell bus fleet entered operation in 2010 and has since accumulated 29,649 fuel cell hours over 286,934 miles. The fuel cell buses have provided an 83% increase in the fuel economy over the control diesel fleet. This grant will allow these buses to continue to operate for a total of six years of continuous demonstration, providing critical operational and maintenance cost data on performance over time, and fuel cell, battery and drive system durability.

CTE has partnered with AC Transit to conduct a Zero Emission Bus Planning Study. CTE will be joined by AECOM as engineering support to conduct the planning study. The project’s scope will include working with AC Transit to map out the power and energy needs of the transit agency’s current duty cycles on more than 100 routes for an efficient and effective zero-emission bus transition.

AC Transit is a leader in the transition to zero, as the state of California calls to transition all state transit agencies to zero-emission battery or fuel cell technologies by 2040.